The positive side of the negative
People don't like thinking in anything other than straight lines. Anything with subtlety to it, or a curve that moves in a new direction is too much for them to take in. And anything that points in totally the opposite direction is just not understood at all. Take negative and positive. It seems that many are incapable of seeing that using a negative in speech might indicate a positive in action. Yet people deplore the use of negative language. For them, all negatives are bad, and all positives are good. The confusion between negative and positive has been moved from the field of electricity or grammatical analysis and applied to the world of morality, behaviour and meaning. It's crazy. To illustrate, here are just a few phrases that use the negative which are wholly positive in meaning, and a few positive phrases that are wholly negative in meaning. 1) 'Don't touch that hot poker!' A negative sentence that may save someone from being badly burned. 2) A secon...